Category Archives: Tink’s *~*~* Links

OK, Whose bright idea was it to hose down the world with a good, lethal dose of Princess-B-Gone? 😉

I think the reason “The Princess And The Frog” didn’t do well is because Disney shied away from truly marketing it in an all-out way. After a few people lobbed accusations of race insensitivity their way, they kept it kind of low key. That was pretty gutless of them but engaging full-on with their accusers would have brought publicity, which would have brought viewers to the theater. My five year old niece LOVES “The Princess And The Frog”, so we know it’s not the material.

Mind you, I’m not opposed to producing films that appeal more universally to boys and girls alike. I’m just a little annoyed that we finally get a princess who’s NOT actively engaged in the single-minded pursuit of her prince, a princess whose interests lie in the pursuit of her dream CAREER, and suddenly Disney decides they are out of the princess business. OK, whatever 🙄

Best line: “Have they forgotten what they were put on earth to give us?”

So… how do you feel about kids having internet access through their toys? Even more controversial – how do you feel about the internet having access to your child through their toys? Do you feel better about it, knowing that Disney is going to have a hand in developing the standards that would govern such technology being included in the playthings used by children? I think the biggest issue with this is that there don’t seem to be laws that would enforce the adoption of such standards. Therefore, adoption of the standards, in whole or in part, would be entirely voluntary, which in my mind renders the standards sort of useless… Ultimately, I think it’s up to parents to decided if they want their kids ordinary playthings to increase their “always connected” -ness or not.

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I followed a link in my FB News Feed to Wired.com and found the following articles totally by accident –

A dad waxes geekish on the educational opportunities that abound at all four Disney World parks in Orlando. He calls out the World Showcase and the salt water aquarium in EPCOT, Indiana Jones in Hollywood Studios, Conservation Station in the Animal Kingdom and The Hall of Presidents and Carousel of Progress in the Magic Kingdom.

Now that his youngest kid is 5 years old, this dad has a little time to play video games again – and what better than a family-friendly Disney game? I’ve never played this game, but he seems REALLY happy with it – not only because it’s a good game but because he’s getting back to something he liked to do before the kids AND he can share it with his kids. Full of WIN 🙂

Final offering from Wired – yet another “GeekDad”, a Canadian, shares his humorous observations about the Disney World experience after spending 14 nights at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort (love me some POR!). I’m shocked to discover how much he says Disney wanted to charge him for a six-pack of Corona – surely he’s gotta be speaking in Canadian dollars, eh?

“Peggy WHO???

I was reading Billboard on Facebook and there was an article about Reese Witherspoon getting ready to play the title role in a new biographical film about the life of Peggy Lee. Betwixt and between the claims that Witherspoon will either tank or win an Oscar, someone asked, “Who is Peggy Lee?”

*collective gasp is heard amongst the online Disney community*

Quickly, a few of us reading that thread ran to YouTube and snatched up videos for this presumably young (and therefore forgiven) soon-to-be-Peggy-Lee-fan to fall in love with. Here’s my contribution – the making of the “He’s A Tramp” number from Disney’s Lady And The Tramp. Enjoy!

[Subscribers: if you do not see a video just below this sentence, then click through to the blog HERE]

PROLOGUE
Host Ira Glass expounds upon the phenomenon of the “I wish” song, an essential component of Disney musicals. The “I wish” song tells us who the character is and what s/he wants, and frequently also sets up the conflict that is somehow resolved during the “happily ever after” ending of the story. Examples cited are “I’m Wishing” from Snow White, “Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid and songs from a few other non-Disney stories such as “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz.

ACT ONE. ACROSS THE STREET FROM HEAVEN
Starlee Kine, one of my favorite contributors to This American Life, tells the sad tale of parental paranoia that leads to being really close to Disneyland but never actually making it inside the “pearly gates”. Funny stuff! ºoº .•:*¨¨*:•. ºoº

HOW TO LISTEN
The whole Disney part of the show takes about 20 mintues out of the hour podcast. There are several ways you can listen in:

👿 I am pretty much a Tinkerbell purist. With the exception of my “Mornings aren’t magical” coffee mug, I am generally a devotee of the original shot-glass sized Tink from the original 1953 classic film Peter Pan. Whenever I’ve purchased Tinkabilia, which has been frequent as you can imagine, I’ve stuck with classic Tink, whose magical mystique is unbesmirched by corporate greed and the march of time.

Well, I guess Disney has decided that they haven’t heaped enough indignities upon my beloved favorite Disney character. Thus far, their list of crimes against her is as follows:

5 Ways Disney has defiled Tinkerbell

They re-drew her. CGI – ’nuff said.

They’ve converted her into a maintenance woman. Disney has insisted that the “Tinker” in Tinkerbell means “one who fixes things”. Please. Everyone knows that “tinker” REALLY means, “the sound a bell makes”. Duh.

They’ve fabricated a contradictory back-story for her. Disney needs to fire whomever came up with this absurd “Pixie Hollow” back-story, populated with little fairy friends. Oh but wait – it’s making money :roll:. This back-story would never happen. In fact, it never DID happen. Tinkerbell hangs with the Lost Boys. Always has, always will.

They’ve made her speak. English, even. See “the sound a bell makes”, above. That’s as close to describing her voice as we mere mortals have ever been able to come. It’s like trying to describe the sound of a dog whistle – everyone knows you are lying because humans cannot hear the sound of a dog whistle.

And the latest, most heinous of all crimes against faith, trust and pixie dust – Disney hath made Tinkerbell a person-sized face character in the parks. Now I ask you, how are all the children, both young and old, supposed to believe that this face character is the real Tinkbell, when everyone knows that the REAL Tinkerbell is so small, she fits in the palm of Peter’s hand? Are we therefore to believe that Peter must be a giant? Preposterous!

And yet, it’s this very most heinous of all crimes which Disney intends to perpetuate with the making of this “live action romantic comedy” film. Just read this article, and then read all the comments that follow. This is what Disney hath wrought upon poor Tink. Oh, the indignity of it all. O, the humanity!

I think they are now painting themselves into a corner. I’ve read that the reason we have no Princess Giselleface character in the parks is because they’d have to find X many clones of Amy Adams. For animated characters, you can easily explain differences in the way they appear in person versus on film – “Oh, everyone looks different when they are drawn.” But you cannot explain why the face character in the park is obviously not the same person as the live action character on screen. Can you imagine the dismay, the anguish, the tears, when little children who’ve seen the “live action romantic comedy” are presented with an obviously FAKE face character Tinkerbell in the parks? Kids are not stupid, you know. They have the ability to suspend disbelief, but eventually they will see that Tink in the parks is bogus. And once they see that, they will start looking at the other characters with the same critical eye.

I predict the downfall of the character meet! 😀

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This has been another scintillating episode of TINK’S *~*~* LINKS – hope you’ve enjoyed 🙂

😕 Maybe I just don’t eat enough eggs, so I’ve never seen them for sale. Or maybe this was just a very short-lived idea. Whatever the case, I never heard of these Disney Farm Fresh Eggs until I stumbled across a discussion about them on BlogCatalog this evening.

[Subscribers: if you do not see a video just below this sentence, then click through to the blog HERE]

It seems a little weird to me. The kids will likely never see the characters stamped on the eggs, unless they are hard boiled. I wonder if the ink runs? Also, I doubt very much that the eggs will naturally emerge from the pan all Mickey-headed like that, unless of course you have the handy dandy Implement of Mickey-Headedness, sold separately (see about the 15 second mark on the video). Ahhh, a light bulb moment – they’re not really trying to sell eggs, they’re trying the sell the Implement of Mickey-Headedness. Those cross-marketing geniuses at Disney – what will they come up with next? 😉

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This has been another episode of TINK’S *~*~* LINKS – hope you’ve enjoyed 🙂

So, I’m not the only one who can have a particular focus on Walt Disney World’s adult beverages, am I? 😉 I was especially delighted that a few of the beverages that were covered here are new to me – yay, another reason to go back!

Here are some of my favorites from various bars around The World:

THE BAILOUT

The Bailout from Shula’s Steakhouse at the Walt Disney World Dolphin resort

🙂 Here’s a fun little slide show from National Geographic, which depicts four Disney park attractions side-by-side with Imagineering’s inspiration for each.

Geography of Disneyland — National Geographic Education.

Cute, informative little gallery, and I love National Geographic – but I have a problem when they call their article, “Geography of DisneyLAND” and then lead off with the castle at Disney WORLD. At least they identified the correct location in the caption.

One of the first things I noticed, aside from the above gaffe with the Castle, is that the Matterhorn bears a striking resemblance, in profile anyway, to the Harry Potter Sorting Hat

An expanded version of the information you’ll find the gallery captions can be found here – Disneyland’s Virtual Geography

Oh, and in case you were wondering how to pronounce it, repeat after me: NOY-shwahn-styne.

🙂 Let’s talk about one of my “favorite” (NOT) Disney subjects – ADRs! For those who are acronyminally challenged (like me!), this means “Advanced Dining Reservations”. I would agree that one should expect crowds during a holiday and therefore it would be prudent to secure reservations for sit-down dining well in advance. However, I think Disney manufactures a certain level of hysteria surrounding sit-down dining by making 180-days-out reservations available all the time, even for non-holidays.

Think about it. A hundred and eighty days in advance is six whole months – half a year! – prior to the day you’d like to dine. Some people don’t even know they are going to Disney yet at 180 days out. Not everyone plans a Disney vacation that far in advance. Even 90 days – 3 months – is a bit much for my taste. It’s too rigid – where is the ability to be flexible, to change one’s mind in all of this? To be fair, probably the reason I don’t plan that far out is because I am a Florida resident; while it’s still an overnight car trip for me, I don’t have to make plane reservations and save up to pay for them, etc. But to be equally fair, this means that the 180-days-out practice for dining reservations discriminates against Florida residents who want to just hop in the car and go when the mood strikes them. It’s even worse for the true locals – those who live in Orlando, Lake Buena Vista, Kissimmee and the surrounding area who can literally be at the restaurant in minutes, if only there were tables to be had!

I know this is a radical concept, even more radical than flexibility, but I would like the luxury of being a bit spontaneous sometimes – let’s see, what cuisine am I in the mood for today? However, by allowing reservations so ridiculously far in advance, Disney has made people anxious enough to take them up on it, and spontaneity flies out the window. This results in a lot of “I’m sorry, we’re totally booked for the entire week” should you not get through to WDW-DINE precisely at 7:00 AM 180 days prior to your meal. While there are allegedly a certain number of seats per meal set aside for “walk-ups”, my personal experience indicates it is a rarity to be seated this way. If it happens and you mention it to regular Disney-goers, they will stare at you in awe and maybe want to reverently touch your hem or kiss your ring to rub off some of your mojo.

From my point of view, the availability of sit-down dining reservations half a year in advance is NOT a valuable service for all guests. While it may be comforting to some, it’s also stressful and sometimes disappointing to others. It’s a method of creating near-panic that results in guaranteed butts-in-seats revenue for Disney’s sit-down dining establishments. Can you say “ka-CHING! $$$”?

Are you a big fan of ADRs or do they make you as “Grumpy” (but not Sneezy or Dopey) as I seem to be about it?

Please leave a comment; I’d love to hear what you think!

The preceding rant was inspired by a story at The Daily Disney, an Orlando Sentinel blog. You can read the story at the link below. Note how the headline admonishes that you’ll “miss out” if you don’t make ADRs – even the media is encouraging hysteria!

On this page, there are a few photos – there are several different styles of lighthouse in Florida, but amazingly there are several that look extremely similar to the one on Sanibel! In fact, the one on Anclote Key is a dead ringer for the one on Sanibel.

gallery of Florida lighthouses

And finally – to see a fine collection of photos of lighthouses from all over the world, you should visit The Lighthouse Cafe on Sanibel Island. It’s on Periwinkle Way on the east end of the island. The walls inside the cafe are COVERED with photos of lighthouses, typically provided by tourists who stop there for a bite to eat.

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PS – Amazon has a TON of books about Florida lighthouses – I’m impressed at just how many! Here are the top three for “relevance” –

The L.A. Times Hero Complex blog reports that The Disney Archives are about to be made viewable by the public at a new museum in Glendale, California. Apparently, when Walt Disney died, his office was sealed as is. Years later, it was unsealed so an archivist could go in and catalog everything. That is how the Archives were born.

It’s much more today than just the contents of Walt Disney’s office – and definitely enough to entice me out to L.A. to visit the Disney parks on that side of the country. I haven’t been there since 2001, when I spent a day at Disney’s California Adventure. I think I’d need several days devoted just to the archives. And many return visits!

So how about you – is this enough to get you out to California for a Disneyland vacation?

I first posted about this a couple of weeks ago, and between that and publicizing it on Facebook, many of you may already know what this is all about and you may already be doing your daily “click”. If you are, then thank you and God bless you.

For those reading who are unaware – Give Kids The World Villas is a resort in the Orlando, Florida area which works with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to grant the wishes of children who are ill with life-threatening diseases. Many of those children wish for the same thing – to go to Disney World. If their wish is granted, the family stays at Give Kids The World for free.

[pullquote]I’m sure there are lots of worthy causes out there, but the one that is currently in 2nd place is for building a weight room in a high school. As compared to granting the dying wish of a terminally ill child, I consider that a “nice to have”, and I can’t believe they are in 2nd place. They must be better at organizing than we are. Let’s change that, RIGHT NOW![/pullquote]

The Village is now 20 years old and needs some repairs. If Give Kids The World can get to 1st or 2nd place in the voting by June 30th, they will win $250,000 from Pepsi to help with the repairs.

When I started a few weeks ago pushing this cause, we were in 16th place. A few days ago, we’d gotten all the way down to 9th!!! Now, we’ve slid back to 10th again. I’m very upset by this 🙁

I can’t think of a better cause than taking a child who is ill and suffering and making him happy. If Mickey Mouse will make that child happy, then that child should have a safe and well-maintained place to stay while visiting Orlando.

I’m posting today to ask you all once again to PLEASE VOTE – it’s just a click!

http://www.refresheverything.com/givekidstheworld

REMINDERS:

You can vote DAILY

After you click “vote” it might ask you to log in with Facebook or register on the site. YOU MUST CLICK “VOTE” AGAIN AFTER YOU LOG IN

Consider spreading the word! After you vote, you will find icons on the site to share on Facebook, Twitter etc. You can do it that way, or send an email to everyone you know, post it on a forum or message board where you hang out…. any way you can think of to spread the word and ask people to vote

ATTENTION FELLOW BLOGGERS! Would you consider putting this on your blog too, and asking your readers to vote? That would really help a lot!

The first time I ever dined at the California Grill at Walt Disney World I was attending a conference at Disney’s Coronado Springs with some colleagues from work. I was desperate to have dinner in this restaurant while the lights were dimmed, the music swelled and the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks soared outside. I was ecstatic when I managed to snag a reservation at the last minute.

The California Gill is located at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, so after the conference sessions were over for the day, we drove over to check the place out at our leisure. Finally it was time for dinner! I don’t remember what my entree was, but you know it was good because, hey, this is the Cali Grill we’re talking about. I do know that I ordered this chocolate lava cake dessert – and it arrived swimming in a sea of warm peanut butter sauce. I cut into it and it OOZED chocolate sauce – flowed just like lava, hence the name. Sopped up some of the peanut butter sauce and popped a piece in my mouth. Oh. My. GAWD!

It’s good, but where’s the pool of warm peanut butter sauce?

I made a few subsequent visits to the California Grill and always ordered the chocolate lava cake for dessert… until one night the server regretted to tell me that the California Grill had rotated it out of their menu in favor of some fresh, new dessert offerings. I was crushed and devastated. I’ve ocassionally tried ordering chocolate lava cake at other restaurants, but no one makes it the way the California Grill did, and no one thinks to set it into a warm, shallow pool of peanut butter sauce.

This is why I’m so thrilled to see it on the menu again for the Cali Grill’s anniversary! And now we have the recipe too – well, except for the peanut butter sauce. I’m going to have to extort that out of someone at the restaurant 😉

If you like to bake, then why not give it a whirl and let me know how it went! According to the receipe, you’ll need some 3.5″ ramekins. You can even come to my house to make it 😉 – I have an oven, and I’ll clean up!

We’ve heard of “too big to fail”, now we have “too big to ride”!

Well, how depressing! Imagine that you’re a real Harry Potter fanatic and you have scrimped and saved and finally landed in Orlando. You make tracks toward Universal Islands of Adventure and head straight for the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter section. As you’re standing in the queue for your much-anticipated first ride on the new attraction Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, you can barely contain your excitement. Finally, it’s you’re turn to climb aboard the vehicle. You have a seat and pull down on the restraints. All this time, all this waiting, all this anticipation, only to find… you’re too big to ride!

A guest to whom this happened recently was featured in Orlando Attractions Magazine (link below). Well, he didn’t have to scrimp and save and fly, since he’s a local – but he did have the “too big to ride” experience. His name is Banks Lee and he seems to have taken it in stride. In fact, the incident has fueled his motivation to lose some weight. He’s blogging his odyssey toward fitting in the seat – I’m headed over there now to leave a comment with an encouraging word or two. Won’t you do the same?

NBC’s sneak peek at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

In the event that you missed it, and even if you didn’t miss it and you just want to see it again – here’s a video that aired just a few nights ago on NBC, which shows how The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was conceived, architected and constructed. There’s a sneak peak of some unique footage that was shot specifically for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey using new technology developed specifically for this attraction. It’s 21 minutes long – NO COMMERCIALS! – so go grab a cup of coffee while the video buffers and then settle in for a treat.

SUBSCRIBERS: if you do not see a video directly below this sentence, please CLICK HERE to go to the blog

Theme Park Insider reader reviews “Forbidden Journey” attraction

I recently read a reader review of the attraction in question over at Theme Park Insider. The writer describes the ride without going into too much detail, so I’ve still got a sense of anticipation about it and I can hardly wait for my October trip to see one of my favorite characters – THE SORTING HAT! This writer says that the whole family agreed – Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey surpasses even Spiderman as the best ride of all time!

I sent an email last Friday to Florida governor Charlie Crist regarding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and what I consider to be the frittering away of funding on advertising tourism when we’re expecting to have a disaster to clean up. I realize people are suffering from lack of business, but I think there is other recourse to compensate them, and that it isn’t right to encourage tourists to gamble their hard-earned vacation dollars on a Florida Gulf beach vacation when we know there’s a good chance of the oil plume making landfall here.

If you would like to contact Florida’s governor or lieutenant governor, please visit

I moved to Southwest Florida 4 years ago from New York. I came here because of the tropical climate and natural beauty of the Lee Island Coast and because of my love for Sanibel, Captiva, Fort Myers Beach and the surrounding out-islands. I love the wildlife sanctuaries and rookeries along Estero and San Carlos Bays, the availability of fresh seafood all year round and our astounding beaches. It breaks my heart to think of all this beauty and abundance covered in crude oil, consequently dead and ruined for generations to come.

The oil gushing into the Gulf has been doing so for over 40 days. Even capped, it is still leaking. I know better than to think that any part of the Gulf states’ shorelines are going to escape some sort of impact. There’s just too much of it out there, and now hurricane season is upon us which will bring unpredictability in the form of currents and winds.

It is unethical, bordering on immoral, to dupe people into coming to Florida’s Gulf Coast, when we cannot guarantee them an oil-free vacation. We are bilking them out of their hard-earned vacation dollars. WHY are we wasting these funds on misleading advertising when they could be applied DIRECTLY to the problem? We could be using the funds to compensate the fisherman and those in the tourist industry for loss of income. We could be conserving some of it to help pay for the cleanup we KNOW we are going to need.

While Louisiana’s leaders are making quite a compelling and widely publicized case for disaster funding, Florida is busy telling people everything is coming up sunshine and lollipops. By this time next week, we could be just as awash in the foul stench of crude oil and decomposing wildlife as Louisiana is right now. Anyone with even half an ounce of sense knows this is true. So why are we being deceitful with our tourists and wasteful with our funding?

Governor Crist, I hope you will do everything in your power to stop this foolishness with the advertising campaigns and start instead and in earnest to prepare Florida’s Gulf Coast for the impact that we all KNOW is coming our way. Start working on BP to step up to the plate and provide compensation for the tourism and fishing industries and funding for the cleanup. Stop worrying about enticing tourists and refocus all that energy – and all those dollars – on ensuring that Florida is prepared to meet the beast swiftly and intelligently when it strikes.

It’s going to be bad. But you can mitigate a lot of that if you will just focus on what matters, on what makes sense and on doing the right thing, always.

Recent article in the Orlando Sentinal’s Daily Disney blog reminded me of an autumn trip to see the Mouse a few years back that culminated in riding out a hurricane at the Port Orleans Riverside resort. I’d gone for a conference and at the end of the trip, did a couple of meets with folks from a couple of Disney message boards with whom I’d been carousing online for a few years.

Sometime during the week, I became aware that Hurricane Wilma was expected to blow through Florida. Now, this was the year before I moved here from New York. I’d been through one hurricane up on Long Island – that would have been Gloria in 1985. I knew that a hurricane could blow down trees and take out a home’s roof or crush a car – all manner of destruction. So I was aware that being outside or trying to travel would not be a good idea and that I’d better just hunker down in the event that Wilma DID strike.

We’d heard that the year before, when Hurricane Charley had come through, Disney had been wonderful to the guests, so I thought it was not going to be a problem. Well, I was wrong. I had one of the most negative experiences ever with Disney when Wilma struck on the morning we were supposed to check out. I still maintain that if a company won’t send their employees out in a storm, they should not toss their guests out on their butts during that same storm. Yet they fully expected me to check out on time, despite not wanting to send bell services out in the storm to get my bags.

There were other service failure type issues with Disney during Wilma. The moral of the story is, don’t depend upon Disney or any company for that matter, to do the right thing in the event of a catastrophe. We’d like to think most people and businesses would react with compassion and common sense, but that was not he case in this instance.

If you’re interested in reading about the rest of that trip, here’s a link to my old trip report site from before the blog –

This oil well has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for more than 40 days. Impact would be devastating for this area – there are wildlife refuges that house rookeries and sea life breeding grounds all along the Lee Island Coast. The potential for unrecoverable destruction is high and it’s severe.

The City of Sanibel has provided links to important instructions that must be followed in the event that evidence of the oil spill is discovered. Follow the link below to access these documents from the City of Sanibel website.

:)If you are a fan of Walt Disney World, then you’ve probably heard of the Give Kids The World Village in Kissimmee, Florida. This is where seriously ill children can come to have their wish for a visit to Orlando fulfilled. If I lived closer to Kissimmee (I’m about 3 hours away by car), I would definitely volunteer there.

The Give Kids The World Village opened in 1989. The villas there are now more than 20 years old and need repairs to keep them “safe and accessible”. They’ve submitted their funding request to the Pepsi Refresh Everything program. As of this writing, they are in 16th place – only the top TWO will receive the funding they’ve requested. Now, it’s all up to YOU!

What You Can Do To Help:

Visit the site and VOTE! Hurry, voting ends June 30th 2010

Tell everyone you know and ask them to vote, too

SHARE IT on Facebook

POST IT on your favorite forum or message board

TWEET IT on Twitter

FORWARD IT to your email contacts

Here’s a short video featuring Wish Kid named Alyssa, telling about her experience at Give Kids The World:Subscribers, if you don’t see a video below this sentence, please click through to the blog HERE

Here’s a link to the Refresh Everything page for Give Kids The World – remember to VOTE, then SHARE the page with everyone you know so they can vote too 🙂

GKTW: Program funds for 7,000 children with life-threatening illnesses | Pepsi Refresh Everything.

I’ve seen Disney’s Main Street Electrical parade only twice – well, one and a half times actually. The half-a-time was in August 2001 when I visited Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim. I forget why, but my friend and I were in a hurry to get out of the park. We saw half the parade while trapped behind the inevitable ropes that prevent Guests from being trampled upon by the parade. Once the barricade was removed, we were outta there.

The second time was in February 2003 at Disneyland Paris. I climbed up to the train station at the head of Main Street to view it. I remember it was bitterly cold and I played a jumping-around game that I’d made up on the spot with some little kid I met up there, to keep warm. The little kid did not speak English and I did not speak French. But we both spoke the language of fun and games, so it was all good 🙂 I loved the music from the Main Street Electrical Parade so much, I bought the CD on my way out of the park. The introduction in the disembodied electronic robot voice is in French!

Anyhow, after last year’s June visit to Walt Disney World, I privately vowed “Never again!” in the summer. May is tough enough, but June was a terror. The heat! The crowds! The bad behavior, obnoxious attitudes and meltdowns! And that was just the adults!

However, the Main Street Electrical Parade is only around through the summer and then it’s gone again. 2003 was a long, long time ago. I kinda wanna see it again.

My AP is good through the middle of January 2011, and it’s only a three hour drive….

During my last trip to Walt Disney World (May 2010), I shared photos and comments on Twitter (via TwitPic), on Facebook and on this blog. Unique content was sent to each of these places. Here are some handy links to access that content

🙂 Check it out – Universal Studios has gone and put a castle in their new Singapore theme park. Gee, wonder where they got THAT idea? 😉 Although it appears to be nothing more than a facade for the Shrek attractions, it’s still a very nice facade. It has lots more turrets than any of those OTHER theme park castles 😆 Clink the link to the blog article below to get a look at it.

Out of the Loop: A look at the new Universal Studios Singapore | Orlando Attractions Magazine Blog.

If your interest is piqued about Universal in Singapore, then you need to check out the blog of a fellow member of the WDB, Gregory aka Bigbearsg

After dark, the dirty work at Disneyland begins

– TheDailyDisney.com

I never knew that Disney actually encourages the “wild” feral cat population that lives at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Apparently, these cats serve a very special purpose… you’ll have to read the article to find out!

Long but worth it, this article touches upon one of the first things I learned about the making of Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

[pullquote]“When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say, ‘But why do you want to build an amusement park? They’re so dirty.’ I told her that was just the point; mine wouldn’t be”. – Walt Disney[/pullquote]

I’d read a while back that Walt had taken his girls to an amusement park one day and it occurred to him that it could be cleaner, more child-friendly and more adult-friendly too. It could be a place that would appeal to everyone in the family, a place cut off from the real world, where guests could literally step into the story and really be there and interact with the characters. Walt decided that since the place he was thinking of didn’t exist, he would make it happen himself. “If you can dream it, you can do it,” he’s quoted as saying. “Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.”

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How I Stay At Disney World for FREE

Every so often, a reader sends an inquiry asking how I can manage to go to Walt Disney World so frequently. “What do you do for a living?” they demand. “You must be rich!”. Well, no – but a girl can dream, so hold that happy thought 😀

Seriously – first of all, I live in Southwest Florida, three hours away from Walt Disney World by car. Three hours worth of gasoline, even in these challenging times, is a whole lot cheaper than airfare! But I think the thing that saves me the most money is that I haven’t actually paid to stay in a hotel at Disney World in a very long time. I use Starwood rewards points and stay for free. The only thing I pay for under the rewards program is hotel taxes and fees (and if I valet my car, I pay for that too). So, the last time I stayed at the Walt Disney World Swan, which is a 4-star hotel, I paid something ridiculous like $90 for three nights. No, not $90 per night – $90 for the whole THREE nights in a FOUR-STAR HOTEL. See? I told you it was ridiculous!

The credit card that gives me this rewards program is the Starwood American Express. I basically use it to pay for all of my expenses – cable bill, phone bill, gasoline, groceries – you name it, I pay it with Amex (believe me, if I could pay my mortgage with it, I would!). I pay off the card in full at the end of each month, so I never pay them any interest charges. I get one point for every dollar I put through the card. The year I moved down to Florida from New York, I racked up some serious points – you know how it goes with moving expenses. 10,000 points will get me a free night at the Swan or the Dolphin. About 3,700 points will get me a free night at the Sheraton Safari right outside Downtown Disney, or else at the Sheraton Suites in Tampa, just up the road from Busch Gardens, or else at the Sheraton Yankee Trader on the beach in Fort Lauderdale… well, you get the idea.

Sunset from the balconyof the WDW Dolphin– a Starwood resort

I just got a notice in the mail that says “Introduce your friends to the card…” – it says if I “invite a friend” and the friend is approved for the card, the friend (that’s YOU) will get a sign-on bonus of 10,000 points (hey, a free night at the Swolphin!) and I will get a 5,000 point bonus. The notice also says that the the first year’s American Express membership fee will be waived (My own current fee is $45 annually).

If you want me to “invite” you to apply for this card, you can use this secure form I’ve created (see CLICK HERE, below) for you to use to send me your email address. I promise not to sell it or to spam you – the only purpose is for Amex to be able to email your invitation to apply for the card. Good luck with the application – I hope you’re able to get the bonus points and enjoy the Starwood program as much as I’ve been enjoying it!

CLICK HERE to fill out the “Introduce A Friend” form…

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Life-changing Lessons from Walt Disney

– DumbLittleMan.com

We’re on a roll with “Walt wisdom” this week. This article comes from an unusual source as it is not a Disney-dedicated site or publication. Walt Disney’s business acumen really boils down to a set of values and a unique approach to work. You might say Walt is the anti-Puritan when it comes to work. He never would have ended up in a “survival career” – he insisted on doing what he loved to do and getting paid for it. Good for you, Walt! This article is full of some of the better Walt quotes.

I recently found some of these very Walt Disney quotes decorating the temporary walls that had been erected around some construction at EPCOT and the Magic Kingdom. These signs were a delightfully welcome change from the typical “We’re Building The Future EPCOT for your enjoyment” (I saw just one of those). I took pictures of these inspirational messages while I was in the World in April. To accompany this article, I’ve made them into a little presentation using Flickr. Enjoy!

[Subscribers: if you do not see a FLICKR slide show just below this sentence, then click through to the blog HERE]

Disney flash mobs in our future, maybe?

The Daily Disney reports on the grand opening festivities of D Street, a new merchandise store in Downtown Disney, Orlando. More intriguing to me than the “dominant presence” of Vinymation figures (I may never “get” Vinylmation…) is the somewhat flash-mob-ish live entertainment. Dewayne Bevil reports, “What I really liked about this entertainment was the surprise incorporation of dancers dressed as everyday cast members. The guy in the back looked like one of Disney World’s street sweepers.”

I don’t know about you, but I think I would really like to be walking down Main Street and suddenly find myself in the middle of an unexpected flash mob. As long as they did it randomly (no schedules with people sitting on the curbs waiting) and not too often, I think it would be a cool bit of serendipity to happen upon.

Places I can think of where this would be really cool:

EPCOT – flash mob takes over the fountain plaza in Future World.

MAGIC KINGDOM – the obvious places are the hub or the town square at the entrance, but I think it would be kind of cool to use that area where the sky ride used to queue up – make it useful for something besides stroller parking. The “mob” could crawl all over that little hill, adding a height dimension to the act.

ANIMAL KINGDOM – problematic due to the narrow trails in this park. The only place I can see this happening without running into big crowds is basically the whole of Camp Minnie Mickey.

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS – obvious places are along Hollywood Blvd and all around the Big-Ass Hat. Streets of America would be good, too – LOTS of space back there. But the PERFECT place for this activity is actually the Animation Courtyard. It’s a wide open area, and you could have extras pour out of Mermaid and/or Playhouse Disney. OK, even though Studios is my least favorite of all the Disney parks, it is now my favorite site for a potential flash mob.

Yes. I know. Disney should hire me as an entertainment Imagineer. Are you listening, Mouse?

Where would YOU stage a flash mob in Walt Disney World?

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READER MAIL: Questions about Ohana and the Polynesian

“Ohana” means “family” – and “family” means no one gets left behind or forgotten.

I got a message on Facebook from a friend and fellow blogger –“Have you ever eaten at Ohana at the Polynesian? How is it? I tried making reservations online but they say they don’t have any! So I think I’ll call but wanted your opinion.”

My reply:

Ohana is very popular. Keep calling – sometimes people cancel just before the window (I can’t remember – it’s 7 days I think or you forfeit the deposit – I think. Ask when you call!).

The food is good and the entertainment is fun, but it is really geared toward families with children little enough to want to get up and play all the games. Also it is a LOT of food – it’s one of those places where they would put an entire cow on your plate if you let them.

What I like best about eating at Ohana is having a fruity cocktail in the Tambu Lounge beforehand and going out to the pool bar afterward for a nightcap. In the Tambu Lounge, they serve drinks in “the glass that looks back at you”. At the pool, they tend to pipe in the music from Wishes and you get to see it from the Polynesian’s beach.

Got a question you think I know the answer to? Leave a comment or E-mail Me!

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World of Color debuts at Disneyland June 11th

While I was at Walt Disney World last weekend, I noticed that much of the merchandise in the shops, both inside the parks as well as at Downtown Disney, was drenched in color. Splashes of bright, nearly-neon color were everywhere. It was as though a box of Crayola Day-Glo threw up all over The World (ewww!). OK, bad analogy for something I actually liked, but you get the idea, right?

Now that I’ve seen the video below, I’m thinking perhaps it’s intentional, to celebrate the opening on June 11th 2010 of World of Color, a new multi-media night time show that will apparently make its home at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Watch this:

[Subscribers: if you do not see a video just below this sentence, then click through to the blog HERE]

Unique night-time views of the Magic Kingdom

While watching Tinkerbell fly through the night skies at the opening of the Wishes fireworks show, have you ever wondered how she gets up there? Yes, I know – pixie dust. OK, you got me. Let’s rephrase – suppose YOU wanted to fly through the sky like Tinkerbell, but you were dustless at the moment. How would you get up there? How would you make sure you would not fall?

The Imagineering Disney blog has published a series of photos taken one night while climbing to the very tippy-top of Cinderella’s Castle. The elevator only goes as far as the now-famous Castle Suite, where some lucky guests have had the good fortune to spend the night. To climb beyond that and take in the views, you apparently need a safety harness! If you are the type who thinks a backstage view would “ruin the magic” for you, then don’t CLICK HERE…

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Come to the beach!

[Subscribers: if you do not see a video just below this sentence, then click through to the blog HERE]

While trawling around YouTube, I found some TV commercial videos for tourism in Lee County, Florida. I chose to live in Lee because of the proximity to Sanibel Island, one of the Lee Islands. The video embedded above has an “Awwww!” factor that will leave you hungry for unplugged beach time on the Lee Island Coast. And if you can’t get down here for a while, it will at least sustain you until you can.

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Book Review: Project Future

There’s a breed of Disney fans who can be classified as Disney scholars. Beyond enjoyment of the magic, they want to know who and what makes it tick. George Taylor is one such fan. He’s got a great library of books that deconstruct, analyze or just plain celebrate Disney, and frequently offers book reviews on the websites for which he writes.

This time, George has chosen “Project Future: The Inside Story Behind The Creation Of Disney World”. I’ve been waiting for this book to be published and now I’m waiting some more until August rolls around, hoping that someone will pluck it from my Amazon Wish List and present it to me for my birthday.

It’s a story after my own, geeky heart. The Orlando Sentinel’s Daily Disney blog reports the existence of a sooper seekrit high tech initiative to incorporate a great deal more wireless technology across the spectrum of the Walt Disney World experience, including the use of RFID (radio frequency identification) chips. Enshrouded in confidentiality agreements and references to “next generation” technology, there are definitely pluses and minuses to any application of this technology you can think of as it relates to theme park resorts. The minuses give me much food for thought. It boils down to an essential question:QUESTION: Will Disney’s Guests be OK with the use of technology that enhances their experience, but also tracks their every move, all day long?
Come and leave a comment, let me know what you think.

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Upcoming Mobile Adventures!

Corkscrew Swamp SanctuaryNaples Southwest FloridaDate: unknown!
We got rained out last Sunday – and I mean it practically MONSOONED, so we were grateful we’d had the good sense to call it off. Unfortunately, it looks like it might rain again this Sunday too; as of right now, there’s only a 20% chance, but that could change over the next couple of days. And seriously, who wants to be in a SWAMP when it’s pouring? 😀 So you can see why I’m not precisely sure when I’ll get to this Southwest Florida attraction – which is run by Audubon, by the way – but I WILL get to it! One of the “ghost orchids” bloomed down there last month, and April is typical for ghost orchid blooms, so I’m hoping to be in the right place at the right time to see it. I know I want to get there before Florida becomes hell-hot. Can’t go the following weekend, because I’ve got another adventure planned for then…

Le Petite Moose MeetWalt Disney World, Orlando, FloridaDates: Saturday 4/24 – Sunday 4/25
Yes, you are correct – those are the “pearly gates” and I’m going to Disney World! Last month we were there at just the beginning of the Flower and Garden Festival; not everything was assembled yet, and more importantly, the magnolias were not yet in bloom! So I need to get my fix. But the most important thing is that a small (hence “petite”) herd of “mooses” will be converging upon Walt Disney World that weekend. The “mooses” are a clan of Disney-lovin’ folk who met on the internet initially but now all that internet stuff is just filler between play dates at The World. Look for people like @DisneyMoose and @badelves and her family to be tweeting and blogging along with me. I think we’re going to have a blast!

MOBILE BLOGGING happens with unique content in three different places:

[Subscribers: if you do not see a video just below this sentence, then click through to the blog HERE]

Here’s an interesting piece of “Walt Trivia” that I found this week, again in the Daily Disney. Apparently, the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction reflects more than just one of Walt’s personal fascinations. We all know about his love of trains – how he worked one summer selling newspapers on a railroad, and how he grew up to build the Carolwood Pacific Railroad in his back yard when he lived in California. Well, not only are trains incorporated into the Big Thunder attraction, but the attraction itself was allegedly inspired by the time when Walt Disney had owned a home in the vicinity of Sedona’s red rocks. In fact, there’s a rock whose official name is Capitol Butte, but people now call it Thunder Mountain in honor of the Disney attraction.

POST SCRIPT: I was googling around for a picture to go with the “Walt Trivia” piece. I searched PicApp for “submarine rock” and much to my surprise, I saw that familiar, three-orb silhouette. I never expected to get this “Hidden Mickey” photo out of “submarine rock”!. I have NO idea who or what that is behind Ringo and George, but I’m grateful because I needed to laugh and laugh and laugh like that 🙂

Wallaby Wanders Wonder

This is a great story that I first discovered on a blog called OMG, what IS that?. I love this blog because Alison can usually dig up some strange, off-beat animal stories. This one is no exception, so I went googling about it.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that a woman from Texas was visiting relatives in the Windemere, Florida area. They live on a street called Wonder Lane – I kid you not! She brought her pet, a 1-year old wallaby named JAK, and he escaped his harness and bounded away.

He’s been spotted here and there in the neighboring area. I’m wondering if anyone thought he was the Easter Bunny!photo by Victius. Some rights reserved.

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DisneyNature OCEANS – coming on Earth Day 2010

[Subscribers: if you do not see a video just below this sentence, then click through to the blog HERE]

DisneyNature’s freshman offering, entitled EARTH, was comprised largely of regurgitated footage from the highly acclaimed BBC series Planet Earth. I’ve found the DVD of the complete BBC series to be a worthy investment, and I’ve watched each episode several times. Naturally, I’ve studied the trailer for this next installment, and a lot of it looks familiar. Therefore, I’m more excited about the soundtrack! There’s some nifty background music going on in that trailer, and lacking a soundtrack disc available for purchase as yet, there’s some discussion and searching going on at the AdTunes forums (I haunt that place – TV commercial tunes are my new obsession hobby). (aside: I would have LOVED to have been there when that HUGE whale jumped out of the water – you’ll see it at the end of the trailer!)

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Oh, Tink *~*~* – not gorillas AGAIN?!?!?

Well, I have been writing about ’em lately, haven’t I? 😉 Which is why this article in The Daily Disney caught my eye, I guess. I have to admit that it gives me a warm-fuzzy to know that useful research is conducted at Disney’s Animal Kingdom – useful not for the human race but for the animals themselves! The gorillas who live on the Pangani Trail in Harambe have been trained to cooperate in the taking of images of their hearts without the use of sedatives. This is useful because silverbacks are known to have heart problems later in life. Therefore, anything that can be learned without putting the animals through an unnecessary procedure is alright in my book! Oh and the other bonus of reading this article is that there are “related links” on the top right of the page. If you are a baby animal enthusiast, you will see lots to explore here.

The butterbeer is coming! The butterbeer is coming!

I admit it. I’m a mere mortal muggle, but I would LOVE to taste me some butterbeer. Dewayne Bevil, writing for the Orlando Sentinal, described his preview of butterbeer in this article (click). I am a little worried that it will be TOO sweet for me and I won’t like it. Only time will tell, and fortunately it won’t be a long time because The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens at Universal Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando on June 18th. Can’t wait!

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[Subscribers: if you do not see a video just below this sentence, then click through to the blog HERE]

Jerry Bruckheimer presents… THE SORCEROR’S APPRENTICE

Disney Pictures allows Nicholas Cage a brief respite from the filming of seemingly endless sequels to National Treasure (2004, 2007 and coming next year in 2011) with a new take on The Sorceror’s Apprentice. I was googling around about this film and found the latest “international” trailer on YouTube. The beginning of the film seems reads like a slightly more sinister version of Back to the Future, complete with wicked-fast car stunts and a mentor-madman at the wheel. Targeted for theaters this July, it looks like good, clean fun! Find more details on IMDB here, and at the Disney Pictures site here.

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Yes, I know – you’ve been waiting for the part about the boobs…

My friend Chris, proprietor of Blog du Mush, was the one who first brought this little nugget to my attention. Apparently, there’s been a casting call for wenches, um I mean lady pirates for the next Pirates Of The Caribbean film – and the powers that be are not interested in seeing you if you do not have your own boobs! Yes, I’m serious. Here it is in writing – no fake boobs will be cast. TPTB apparently believe that a natural, wobbling jiggle will carry more appeal during the “action” scenes…. you can’t make this stuff up, folks! At any rate, it appears that Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is due in theaters circa May 2011, and will feature Penelope “I wonder if they’re real” Cruz as Blackbeard’s Daughter and Jack Sparrow‘s love interest.

I agree that the story was slow in spots. I do not agree that the music was “quality” across the board – every song with the exception of “Dig A Little Deeper” was eminently forgettable. But you know what I loved about “The Princess And The Frog”? Tiana is smart, ambitious, driven and a go-getter. She did not sit around helplessly waiting for her prince to come. She planned her work, then worked the plan to get everything that she wanted for herself. YOU GO, GIRL! 🙂

Not sure why anyone would be interested, in this economy. When you consider airfare, especially for an entire family, this just isn’t practical for most passholders. You have to wonder at the motivation for such a “deal”. Possibly, Disney is betting that someone will find the idea of visiting all 6 US parks in one year appealing, but the practicalities of having them on opposite coasts will be prohibitive. They will have collected the revenue whether or not the parks are visited. The only people I can see this being good for are locals who buy an annual pass to their local park anyway. They might consider making one big trip next year to the other coast (Floridians to California and vice versa), but I cannot see many people making TWO big trips in a year in this economy.

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New trailer for Disney’s TANGLED!

Here’s a trailer for the upcoming TANGLED, Disney’s take on the “Rapunzel” fairy tale. Leads are voiced by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi of NBC’s “Chuck” (I do love me some Chuck, just wish I remembered more often to watch!).

[Subscribers: if you do not see a video just below this sentence, then click through to the blog HERE]

I did not realize they had underwater video of this event. I’m not sure how many people would willingly watch this poor girl drown. This is not something the public needs to see or hear, and I agree that it should not be released. I’m glad the judge sees it the family’s way, and I hope that sentiment will continue toward making the injunction permanent.

🙂 Hey, I’m back from my whirlwind weekend in Walt Disney World, where I made a leisurely tour of Disney’s Animal Kingdom and EPCOT, watched three of my “sistahs” cross the finish line in the Disney Princess Half Marathon, and mobile blogged the entire time.

You can find a lot of pictures here on My Mobile Adventures *~*~*, but I also posted unique content to the blog’s Facebook page and to Twitter as well (the tweeted pictures are actually over at TwitPic). In addition to the mobile blogging and tweeting, I took a ton more that are still in the camera, including a few lucky shots of the new baby gorilla aka the “girl-illa” who was just recently born at DAK. I hope to get those up on the blog shortly, possibly this weekend in time for Camera Critters.

In the meantime, I’ve been catching up on a little reading. Here are some things which caught my eye, tickled my fancy or provided food for thought:

The family of the trainer who was killed by an orca at SeaWorld is seeking an injunction against the public release of SeaWorld’s surviellance video, which captured the incident.

“Use of this video will do nothing more than further sensationalize a tragic event and traumatize our family,” said Charles LoVerde, the spokesman. “Some members of the news media have shown restraint and sensitivity during this difficult time, but many others have not. The conduct of some members of the press has been disgraceful. Our family has a right to heal in private, and we once again appeal to the media to recognize the terrible pain we are experiencing and give us a small measure of respect and privacy.”

My reaction: I hope that any web hosting company, YouTube, Flickr, etc. would immediately remove any photos or videos depicting this tragedy once they were aware of them, and also that the hosting company would deal harshly with the person who posted it. I also hope that anyone reading this who sees such a thing online will immediately inform the host and insist upon it’s removal. If you cannot figure out who the host is, email me and I’ll help track it down (belltinkr at g mail dot com)

It’s morbid, unnecessary and just plain mean to post such a thing. And as we all know, mean people suck. Karma doesn’t like them very much, either….

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Mmmmm, Disney Food!

The Daily Disney offers this recipe from the Grand Floridian Cafe at Walt Disney World –

Personally, I generally do not care for key lime pie, but I think the chocolate crusting thing would go a long way toward helping me to appreciate it 😉

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PRINCE OF PERSIA – EXTENDED TRAILER

Prince of Persia is a popular series of video games, available for Playstation 3, XBOX 360 and Windows XP (affiliate links lead to Amazon.com). Now it’s a film by Jerry Bruckheimer and Walt Disney Pictures, scheduled for release in May 2010. Love the Aladdinesque theme – poor street waif becomes prince. I definitely want to see this -part film, part video game, all Gyllenhaal all the time! <3
Here's the official site for the film - Walt Disney Pictures | Prince of Persia. And looky, you can Become A Fan on Facebook!. And finally – feast yourself on the extended trailer (Subscribers – if you don’t see a video right below these words, click through to the blog to view it):

DISNEY BOARD GAMES!

I was googling around for something, but you know how it goes – click a picture here, or an intriguing title there, and suddenly I found myself face-to-face with Disney board games! I didn’t even know there was such a thing. How cool are these? (yes they are affiliate links, no they won’t bite you!). There’s something called the Magic Kingdom Game (nope, I’ve never heard of it either), and also the Splash Mountain Edition of SORRY! in a collectible tin.

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That’s it for Tink’s *~*~* Links this week. After I unwind from my whirlwind weekend trip, I’ll get back to regular posting. Enjoy!

I’ve been doing some reading in my RSS reader lately. Here are a few Disney-related links I hoarded to share with you all.

I’ve decided to call this post “Tink’s *~*~* Links” just because I like things that rhyme 🙂 And who knows, maybe this shall become a trend! On with the sharing….

First up –

Curry Butternut Soup from Boma at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge – made by The Disney Chick!

I’ve been reading her for a while, and tweeting with her on occasion. The Disney Chick’s definitely got it going on when it comes to trying Disney recipes and sharing them with us. I’ve had this soup at Boma a few times and it’s mmm-mmm-GOOD! This is going to be a must-try for me – I’ve got her post preserved in my Instapaper account!

A from-the-air comparison of Disney parks

I dropped in on the Imagineering Disney site last week. Some former cast members number amongst the site’s contributors, and I often find their material intriguing. This time, it’s a side-by-side comparison of some aerial views of Disney parks across the globe. Check it out!